Mattis: Success in Iraq now a test of wills

Today's Marines are the best educated and trained in the history
of the service and part of his job is to make sure that continues
as the conflict in Iraq goes on, Mattis said.

"Wars like this are winnable but you have got to have a
sophisticated approach and you've got to have very sturdy and
spiritually sturdy Marines who can keep their balance in the face
of an extremely complex fight."

As an example, Mattis talked of a Marine unit that had just seen
several of its members wounded in a roadside bomb explosion yet
took the time to wave to Iraqi children after the dead and injured
were evacuated and it was leaving the area.

"It's not a small issue to wave to kids after just seeing your
buddies blown up, but that shows on the most pedestrian level the
kind of sturdiness that is needed in what is just a morally
bruising environment where the enemy hides among the people."

New goals

Mattis assumed command of Marine Corps Forces Central and the I
Marine Expeditionary Force last week from Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler
following a two-year stint at Quantico, Va., as commander of combat
development.

Once Sattler handed over those commands eight days ago, Mattis
said, his foremost obligation became delivering to Gen. John
Abazaid, commander of all U.S. forces in Iraq, whatever he needs
from the Marines.

His second obligation, he said, is to the more than 25,000
Marines and sailors who make up the I Marine Expeditionary Force, a
force whose units are now returning from Iraq following their third
assignment there since 2003.

"For the I MEF, it is to ensure that the force which has carried
a very significant part of the fight in this war has what it needs
so that in an uncertain world we're all certain of one thing: if
there's trouble, the I MEF can handle whatever is assigned to us to
do."

Among the challenges he faces at Camp Pendleton is helping
decide the fate of seven Camp Pendleton Marines and a Navy corpsman
accused of premeditated murder and kidnapping in the death of an
Iraqi man in April.

Pretrial hearings for those men are slated to start soon, and as
commanding general, Mattis will determine whether their cases
should move forward to courts-martial. If that happens and they are
convicted, the 55-year-old general will also help decide the
appropriate punishment.

He also will help decide whether Marines from another Camp
Pendleton unit will face criminal charges in the deaths of 24
civilians in the Iraqi city of Haditha in November. Because the
general is the "convening authority" under the military justice
system for those cases, that subject matter was off-limits during
the interview.

New battlefield manuals

Until now, the Marine Corps and Army have been conducting the
war in Iraq and Afghanistan using a more than two-decades-old
manual for fighting an insurgency. That's about to change with the
introduction of a pair of manuals, one written by Mattis, the other
co-written by him.